R&D Successes Onboard Biomass

Written by Copernical Team Monday, 23 June 2025 11:05

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For any space mission to launch, thousands of hours must have been spent iterating new technologies to make the spacecraft fly. The Biomass satellite, which today shared its first science data, is no exception. The probe, which carries just a single instrument on board, will perform a five-year census of all the trees on Earth to teach us more about how climate change and pests are affecting the world’s forests than we’ve ever learnt before.

Antenna Precision and Performance

Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer satellite

One of the standout features of the Biomass mission is the spacecraft's deployment of a massive 12-meter diameter reflector antenna. This technology, to harness the long-wavelength ‘P-band’ radar signals, enables the precise communication and data transmission that makes the mission’s science so vital.

One of ESA’s Basic Activities, the Technology Development Element, has been working with Large Space Structures, Germany, to develop Europe’s first mesh reflector for shaped radio beams. ESA’s AMPER (Advanced techniques for mesh reflector with improved radiation pattern performance) project will optimise satellite-based communications and observations as the surface can be shaped to improve performance, filling a technological gap for Europe first identified in the early stages of the Biomass mission.

“When we looked into high priority candidate missions, ultimately all of the six missions implemented in the frame of Copernicus required a large deployable reflector antenna. So when we started to study these missions in Phase A, we needed an engineering model for a deployable antenna for Europe,” explains Martin Suess, the ESA engineer in charge of the antenna project.

The development of the deployable reflector was not without its challenges. Engineers needed to ensure the antenna would unfold correctly in space while withstanding extreme environmental factors. The solution came in the form of a gold-plated metallic mesh, just 20 microns thick, that forms the reflective surface.

“There are a number of TDE activities which precursor this one, now we have demonstrated the mechanical performance, we’ve tested performance under environmental conditions, we’ve put the folded reflector on shaker, then deployed it, did the same in the vacuum etc. It’s really almost ready for launch already,” says Suess.

The success of the technology push initiated by Biomass's need for an unfurlable antenna system has led to the European Large Deployable Reflector study, which has taken several developments from AMPER and other TDE activities to develop a large deployable antenna that will now be used onboard the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) mission, planned for launch in 2029.